A lot of people are getting really upset about this, because Star Trek has had a long history of turning a blind eye to fan fiction — with professional Trek actors often popping up in the bigger-budgeted ones, but I think the budget here makes a huge difference. At what point does fan work stop being fan work and just become unlicensed work?

The fact is, they can’t claim that this is fair use just because they don’t; fair use is only decided by a judge or a jury. Similarly, while I believe that Multiplex’s use of posters and film stills is fair use because of—at various times—commentary, criticism and parody… only a judge or jury can say that it IS fair use. At this point, there isn’t really much legal precedent for works like this, and that’s what I find interesting about this lawsuit.

If it does make it to court, this could be either very good or very bad for people who like playing with other peoples' intellectual toys—as well as for people like me who want to comment on media through other media.